An Introduction to the Recent Grosses Gewächs Preview Tasting in Wiesbaden, Germany
A week or so ago, I attended the 23rd annual preview of Grosses Gewächs (“GG”) wines put on by the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (“VDP”). The first was in Berlin, all subsequent ones have been in Wiesbaden; I have missed but two: one due to COVID restrictions, and one many years ago when I was not able to travel to the event.
Fountain (and goose) in front of the colonnade of the Wiesbaden Kurhaus,
where the tasting was held.
One of the tasting rooms.
The VDP is an organization of about 200 of the best German wine producers that exists to promote the best of German wines and ecological standards in the vineyards. The organization was founded in 1910, and until relatively recently, one could say that the great majority of best German wine producers were VDP members. Today, there are so many producers of outstanding wine in Germany that 200 will not suffice to be the majority. Nevertheless, one can say with confidence that membership in the VDP indicates that a producer is of top quality.
Grosses Gewächs are intended to be the top dry wines of each producer within certain grape types according to region. For example, in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Mittelrhein, Nahe, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Franken, Württemberg, Baden, and Sachsen/Saale-Unstrut GG Riesling can be made; but only Franken can make GG Silvaner.
GG wines usually need several years in bottle to show their best, but at this tasting many of the wines were in bottle for very little time, sometimes only days, and in a few cases, cask samples were presented because the wines are not yet in bottle. The result is that the wines often do not show their best and can be difficult to judge. Some producers do hold back their wines for one or more years before presenting them at the tasting, but this can cause cash flow problems, so it is only a relative few who do so. Also, for various reasons, some producers see no need to show their wines at the tasting.
In addition to the possible problems resulting from recent bottling of many of the wines, there is the fact that a lot of wines are tasted in a relatively short period of time, invoking the problem of palate fatigue. Surprisingly, for the experienced taster who knows what to look for, this is much less of a problem than one might think, but it is a potential issue, nonetheless.
As a consequence, one must take the notes from this tasting with a bit more skepticism than for other notes.
With respect to the wines, 2023 German wines have arrived this early date, at best, a mixed reputation. I’ve always taken the position that good producers produce good wines, no matter what the conditions. With a partial exception of 2006 in Germany, which was a generation ago, that has proven to be the case; but 2023 is an outlier, and I found some wines that just didn’t meet the expected standard.
Most of the Spätburgunder (Pinot Noirs) were from the 2022 vintage, and I can confidently say that as a whole, this is the best Spätburgunder year I’ve ever seen from Germany. Do try some, and not just the GG.